Scandal-hit liquor maker halts packaging lines (2)

The scandal sent Jiugui's shares tumbling and some of its products taken off the shelves.

Shares closed at 34.69 yuan (5.52 U.S. dollars) per share by midday Tuesday. It marked a third consecutive trading day its shares have dropped by the daily limit on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

Most liquor companies have seen their shares contract over 10 percent since the scandal erupted, including Wuliangye Yibin Co. and Hebei Hengshui Laobaigan Liquor Co. The least-affected company, Kweichow Moutai Co., has slumped 3.3 percent.

The China Alcoholic Beverage Association said last week that large-scale tests on China's liquor showed that almost all alcohol products contained plasticizers, with an average level of 0.537 mg per kg.High-end liquor products contain more plasticizers than low-end ones.

Some industry observers defended the liquor makers because there is no law or formal regulations on the levels of plasticizers liquor products are allowed to contain.

Dai Qi, an official of Hunan Provincial Administration of Quality, Inspection and Quarantine, said the MOH has not put the provisional regulatory limit into the production standards for liquor products, so legally it is impossible to say whether Jiugui contain "excessive" amounts of the plasticizer.

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